In the last decade, regionalism appears to have emerged as a major new force in the world. This book puts it in its historical context. Regions have emerged before; few are old because they either evolve into federal systems or break up. The current regions are less dominant than their critics fear (they account for about a third of world trade), but imply more integration than a simple view that they are about liberalising trade. All go beyond trade to other linkages, and all the enduring ones have political as well as economic agendas.

Increasingly developing countries are required to use monetary policy to meet the challenges of both short-term stabilization and long-term adjustment. Their experience has not been encouraging, but whether this is because of the policies or because of the countries is unclear.

Over the last 15 years there have been dramatic increases in both private and public intervention in international trade. Traditional barriers to market-based trade such as commodity cartels and tariffs have been augmented by new developments such as the rise of regional trade blocs and the growth of intra-firm trade. This book argues that these changes are large and persistent enough to have an impact on total development performance, and on the performance of individual countries and individual sectors. It illustrates this with a wealth of theoretical arguments, empirical evidence and...

Why do countries come together in regions? Why do some regions succeed? Are regions economic or political tools, for development or for negotiation?

In the last decade, regionalism appears to have emerged as a major new force in the world. This book puts it in its historical context. Regions have emerged before; few are old because they either evolve into federal systems or break up. The current regions imply more integration than a simple view that they are about liberalising trade.